Opinion & Analysis

Coups and countercoups. Crackdowns. Economic crackups. Seven cents for a tube of toothpaste and $755 for a box of condoms. Falling oil prices. The arrest of an opposition leader. Washington plots. Human Rights Watch tweets. South America rallies.... Greg Grandin talks to a panel of experts to find out what really is going on in Venezuela.

Argentine political scientist and sociologist, Atilio Boron, shares his thoughts on the recently unearthed "Blue Coup" attempt against the Maduro government and analyses what he characterises as the decline of US global hegemony.

By Marxist Tendency of the PSUV - In Defense of Marxism , Feb 28th 2015

The Marxist Tendency of the PSUV argues that the current crisis cannot be resolved by making concessions to the bourgeoisie and that the only solution is a revolutionary offensive that places the means of production under workers' control and thoroughly revolutionizes the armed forces.

Rightwing Colombian newspaper El Tiempo conducts an interview with Secretary General of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations). In the interview, the Colombian diplomat gives his take on the current challenges facing the Venezuelan government, including his view on the economy and the threat of foreign intervention.

Michael Albert critiques the U.S. anti-authoritarian Left's silence in the face of U.S.-sponsored destabilization efforts in Venezuela, encouraging U.S. leftists to join in critical solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution at its hour of greatest need.

Deivi Peña argues that increasing the price of gasoline will give the Venezuelan oligarchy an excuse to intenify the economic war by setting off a further spiral of inflation that will harm working class people.

teleSur journalists Tamara Pearson and Ryan Mallett-Outtrim debunk the myriad of lies and fabrications disseminated by the mainstream corporate media about the violent opposition protests in 2014, known as the "guarimbas."

Ex-minister Hector Navarro calls for the bases of the PSUV to retake control of the party whose internal democracy he claims has been threatened by bureaucratization and corruption. Nevarro, who was himself formally disciplined by the leadership of the PSUV for defending ex-planning minister Jorge Giordani, nonetheless holds open the possibility of further deepening the Revolutioon by broadening popular protagonism.

By insisting on U.S. “exceptionalism” in the 2015 National Security Strategy, it appears that the U.S. will tolerate only one economic and political model in its “backyard,” the one that conforms to the global neoliberal order, even as that order is being called into question by those who have the most to lose from its perpetuation.

Venezuelanalysis journalist, Lucas Koerner, takes a look at the rightwing student movement in Venezuela, its ideology and appropriation of leftwing symbols and discourse. He also examines what model of education is being proposed in Venezuela's new "experimental" public universities as an alternative to neoliberal visions of education. This analysis includes an interview with Luis Javier Gomez Rojas, a facilitator at the Bolivarian University for Workers.